Does anyone know anything about the story of Sardis?

[DustMolecule]

eom

[eileen from OH]

1. well, their restaurant

is waaaay overpriced, but the Hirschfeld drawings are really cool.

eileen from OH (it's late, I'm in smart ass mode. One beer over the line, sweet Jesus. Someone else will give you a straight answer, I hope.)

[NightNurse]

2. My Guy (Gallery god) and I Dine there Often When We're in Town for A Show

Foods OK-prices are w/i "range" for the Theater District,the service is exquisite...however the tony, Upper West Side bistros are all the rage,now.:beer:

[jpgray]

3. Croesus, the Persians and the great Ionian love-in? (nt)

[Mobius]

4. The Acropolis

Known biblically as the home of the church that received the fifth of letters to the seven churches in Revelation, Sardis was the capital of the Lydian empire and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.

Located on the banks of the Pactolus River, Sardis was 60 miles inland from Ephesus and Smyrna. The city was home to the famous bishop Melito in the 2nd century.

[Mobius]

5. more:

http://www.harvard-magazine.com/issues/ma98/sardis.html
To judge by the hundreds of known references, poets and historians of antiquity were endlessly fascinated by "Sardis rich in gold," in western Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), the mighty capital of the Lydian empire that once stretched from the Aegean Sea to central Anatolia. It was said that the god Dionysus had been born there and that the descendants of Heracles had ruled there. And legends proliferated about the fabulously wealthy Croesus, king of Sardis from 561 to 547 b.c.e. The river Pactolus, wrote Dio Chrysostom, swirled down from the heights of Mount Tmolus laden with gold dust, right "through the middle of Sardis," bringing unimaginable riches to Croesus just "for the taking."
Such stories fed the curiosity of the late George M.A. Hanfmann, future professor of fine arts and curator of ancient art at Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, during his rigorous classical education in Germany between the world wars. (Born in Russia in 1911, he became an American citizen in 1940.) And in a sense, that unquenchable curiosity led, in the hot summer of 1958, to his first breaking ground for the Harvard-Cornell Archaeological Exploration of Sardis.
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sardis/historysardis.html
History of Sardis

Sardis lies in the territory of Lydia, at the foot of the Tmolus Mountains and overlooking the Hermus River plain, where evidence has been found of human activity as early as the Palaeolithic period (ca. 50,000 B.C.). By the late second millennium B.C., a modest community existed at the foot of the acropolis. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the "sons of Herakles" founded a dynasty that remained in power for "505 years, son succeeding father from generation to generation till the time of Candaules" (from ca. 1185 to ca. 680 B.C.). By the early 7th century B.C., Sardis was the capital of a growing empire, with a distinct archaeological record.
<artimis.html> <artimis.html>
Temple of Artemis: built in Hellenistic and Roman times (ca. 300 B.C. - early 2nd century A.D.); looking east, towards the Acropolis.
© Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/Harvard University 1996
During the Mermnad dynasty (ca. 680-547 B.C.), the empire reached its greatest geographical extent, stretching from the Aegean Sea to central Anatolia. Herodotus credits the Lydian kings with the invention of coinage and the construction of the great royal burial mounds at Bin Tepe, some 6 miles to the northwest of the acropolis. Kings Gyges and Croesus were particularly renowned for lavish gifts dedicated in Greek sanctuaries. In 547 B.C., Sardis was sacked by Cyrus the Great and remained under Persian control until 334 B.C., when it was captured by Alexander the Great. The city continued to flourish during Hellenistic and Roman times, when ambitious construction projects were initiated, including the temple of Artemis and bath-gymnasium complex . A section of the bath-gymnasium complex was later remodeled to accommodate a synagogue. This synagogue, now partially restored by the Harvard-Cornell Expedition, is the largest early synagogue yet excavated in the Mediterranean world.


that help, any? :shrug: